For an instant “aha” in conversation with non-scientists, I often use science as an example area that benefits from improved artificial creativity. The mention of medicine does especial wonders to exercise people’s often-skewed ideas about intelligent machines.

Earlier this month reports of a “robot scientist” made their rounds telling of a robotized lab and AI system that generated its own hypothesis, ran experiments to test them and with the process “discovered new functions for a number of genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aka brewer’s yeast.” The robot, called Adam (cute), is being developed by Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Robust artificial creativity systems are an important step towards the ultimate commodity: a mass-producable product that in turn produces solutions and ideas on demand. Think how this could add to our capacity for problem solving. The idea is as exciting as the challenges involved in realizing it. Many questions remain unanswered:

Not only do we lack understanding of our own creative mechanisms, but the basics of computer programs seem to oppose the idea of achieving unbound originality. Here’s a look at that important, fundamental problem when implementing creativity. In easy digest format, no less.

I just added a few paragraphs to the artificial creativity page, on anthropocentric approaches to creativity. If you have a look at the Wikipedia page for artificial creativity you’ll notice that it doesn’t make a distinction between anthropocentric approaches and others. That’s because the entire article is anthropocentric. For your consideration.

A few weeks ago the book Intelligent Complex Adaptive Systems (ICAS) was published.

Chapter V, titled Emergence of Creativity: A Simulation Approach, presents my latest research on the emergence of creativity in natural and artificial organisms, a theory of its origins and potential grounds for future artificial implementations. The book is distributed internationally.

Since early December 2007, a new author has been publishing articles on Think Artificial under my name. This author is not human, but intelligent software created by myself to relieve the pressure of regular posting. Currently, the system has posted over 20 articles without breaking cover.

Taking its cues from Google News Alerts on “robotics”, the system analyzes news articles — identifying and extracting relevant lines of text and generating a shorter version of the article. The text is then paraphrased using preset tunings to mimic my writing style. The ultimate result is an article that only needs my one-click administrator approval to be published.

By all likelihood you’ve heard of the vodka company’s Absolut campaigns. Recently they launched Absolut Machines, a new campaign that’ll be running for a year and centers around two artificial creativity projects; AI systems that compose music on accompanying mechanical instruments and can be watched & interacted with via live video feeds.

I received a notification recently that the 5th International Joint Workshop on Computational Creativity (IJWCC) is open for submissions. I presented at the workshop in 2004 in Madrid, where it’s being held again now in 2008.

Click through for additional information and the official announcement.

I just finished updating the Artificial Creativity page. It now sports an External Links section which I’m sure will provide the enthused with some food for thought. Suggestions for new links are welcomed in the comments of this entry.

With the complexity of modern AI systems, they sometimes come up with solutions we don’t expect … when we least expect it. Here’s a great video example of this; an AIBO robot is presented with a problem that seems to have only one possible solution. Can you figure out more than one? The AIBO can.

It’s an unfortunate fact that there’s no single, online information source that covers machines that can compose music, invent patentable ideas, or make up stories on their own (yes, all of these exist). So, let’s fix that, shall we?

Today I’m introducing something new on Think Artificial: A Living Article. It’s not exactly a blog entry, wiki nor a static page, but an article that I intend to gradually add to and improve upon. The article is an easy-read overview of artificial creativity, or at least the beginning of one. You can always find it through the main menu, and I’ll be posting notifications whenever it’s significantly updated. Moreover, I invite you to help create it!